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Chanel
Founded in 1909, Chanel is one of the most revered fashion brands in the world, but it doesn't tend to crop up on our design radar too often. However it has stormed its way to the top of our fashion list this year thanks to a single project: Crystal Houses, its new store in Amsterdam with a facade designed by Dutch architects MVRDV.
Housed in a traditional Dutch building, the architects replaced the clay bricks on the first two floors with glass ones, creating a striking, transparent facade that respects the original architecture while offering something utterly new. The project was one of the most popular we've published this year and it also did no harm to MVRDV's ranking on our Hot List.
Our post containing a movie documenting how the bricks were cast in Venice was also popular, while the video is the most popular architecture film we've ever published on our Facebook page, with almost 750,000 views.
The only other time Chanel had graced our pages was back in 2008, when Zaha Hadid unveiled her travelling Contemporary Art Container for the brand – a story that remains popular today.
Top posts
1. MVRDV replaces Chanel store's traditional facade with glass bricks that are "stronger than concrete"
2. Movie documents MVRDV's pioneering technique for creating glass brick facades
3. Chanel Contemporary Art Container by Zaha Hadid